CRESTED EAGLES— SERPENT-EAGLES. 315 



will sit stupidly on a tree, or any little mud pillar, and permit you to 

 ■walk within thirty yards of them, but, before feeding, they are somewhat 

 wary, and can by no means always be secured, even when seen sitting. On 

 more than one occasion he found desert rats {Gerbillus erythrurus) in their 

 crops, and he once shot one of a pair, which were busy on the line of rails at 

 Etawah, devouring a Bandicoot rat {Mus haiidicota), which some passing 

 train had cut in two. Occasionally, but rarely, they had eaten snails and 

 other birds. Once he shot a male, which was dancing about on the ground 

 in such an astounding fashion that he killed it to see what the matter was. 

 The bird proved to have been choking, and it had swallowed a whole dry 

 shin-bone and foot of an antelope. The bone, apparently, could not be got 

 down altogether, and in trying to void it, the sharp points of the hoof had 

 stuck into the back of the palate. 



There are many other kinds of Eagles, such as the Buzzard-Eagles 

 {Archibuteo), and the members of the genus Eutolmaet^is, of which Bonelli's 

 Eagle (M. faseiatus) is the type, and the Booted Eagle of Southern Europe 

 (E. pennatus) is another well-known {nember of the genus. Lophotriorchis 

 is another remarkable form, with a well-developed crest. It has one species, 

 L. kieneri, found in India and the Malay Archipelago, while the only other 

 species occurs in the mountains of Colombia in South America, a very 

 interesting fact in geographical distribution. One of the moat curious of 

 Eagles is the Birds'-nesting Eagle (Neop-us malaiensis) of India and the 

 Malayan comitries and islands. Ic is a black bird, with powerful talons which 

 are nearly straight. It spends its time hunting for eggs and nestlings, and is 

 continually on the wing, like a Kite. "It subsists," says Colonel Legge, 

 "as far as can be observed, entirely by birds'-nesting, and is not content 

 with the eggs and young birds, which its keen sight espies among the 

 branches of the forest trees, but even seizes the nest in its talons, decamps 

 with it, and often examines the contents as it sails lazily along." Part of 

 a bird's nest has been found in this Eagle's stomach. 



The Crested Eagles (Spizcietus) of the Indian Region and the Black Eagle 

 of Africa {Lophoaetus occipitalis) complete the list of feathered-legged Eagles. 

 All the rest belong to the bare-legged section which have the tibio-tarsus 

 unfeathered. To this section belong the Sea-Eagles and their allies, the 

 Serpent-Edgles. Of the latter there are many species in Africa and in the 

 Indian Region, the best-known being the members of the genus Circaetus and 

 Spilornis. Of the former we have one species in Southern Europe, Circaetus 

 gallicus, but the true Serpent-Eagles {S2nlornis) are inhabitants of India. 

 The amount of good which they do may be calculated by the statement of 

 Mr. A. O. Hume, who has shot numbers of these birds, that he found fifty 

 little serpents in the stomach of one individual, and on another occasion he 

 knew of a Cobra, 2| ft. in length, being taken out of a Serpent-Eagle's 

 stomach. Biitastur' is another oriental genus, and the Bateleur-Bagks 

 (Helotarsus) are confined to Africa. The true Sea-Eagles (Haliaetus) are 

 nearly world-wide in digtribution, but they are absent in South America. 

 In Europe and North America we have the White-tailed Eagle (Haliaetus 

 albicilla) and the Bald Eagle (ff. leucocephalm), the latter remarkable for its 

 pure white head. The Ethiopian region contains a beautiful species, 

 H. wcifer, and one of the most widely distributed Birds of Prey in Australia 

 and the East is H. lexicogaster, the white-bellied Sea-Eagle. 



From the Sea-Eagles we pass to the Kites, which are also members of the 

 sub-family Aquilince. At first sight they would seem to have no connection 



